When a beginner starts to exercise playing a music instrument it is important to have high motivation. Usually, beginners have high motivation in the beginning, but since repetitive practicing of tone sequences is required and the progress in learning is usually slow, a beginner often loses the inner motivation and stops practicing. As a result, it has been estimated that 85% of people that start playing a music instrument quit before they reach a reasonable skill level.
Some methods have been developed to imitate the playing of a music instrument. For example, a “Guitar Hero®” system includes a special type guitar, which is played by pressing buttons instead of pressing strings. The system also includes software which is played in a game console. The user can select one of stored songs, after which the system shows on a display instructions for playing, i.e. the buttons to be pressed. Such a system makes playing with a special game guitar entertaining but it does not help much in learning to play a standard type guitar or other music instruments.
Patent publication U.S. Pat. No. 7,030,307B2 discloses a system where notes of a music piece are shown in a simplified, visual manner on a computer screen. The system also gives the user feedback on whether the playing was correct. However, the system requires an electronic music instrument with a digital MIDI interface. There are certain disadvantages or deficiencies in the prior art systems. Firstly, if a system has a learning program, it is usually same for all users. On the other hand, users may be able to select music pieces which they use for practicing the playing. However, people are different in what items they learn fast and what items are more difficult to learn. In a prior art system, a user may get an acceptable score even if the user has difficulties in some specific items. When a fixed exercise program or randomly selected exercises are used, a user probably does not get enough practice in such items which are difficult for the user. As a result, certain skills may remain poor despite the practice. People also tend to overestimate their current skills, which leads to selecting too difficult exercises and getting further demotivated to practice.
The prior art systems do not either enhance the motivation of the user to practice exercises. Although the systems give feedback on the user's mistakes the user is only told what the user has done wrong without proposing how to counter the current skill deficiency.